DA: Suspects will be tried as adults for first-degree homicide

Sep. 20, 2012

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Sheboygan Falls Police Chief Steve Riffel walks near West Ridge Dive near Huron Trail Wednesday in Sheboygan Falls during the investigation of the death of a 78-year-old woman at her home. / Photo by Gary C. Klein/The Sheboygan Press

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SHEBOYGAN FALLS — Two Sheboygan male juveniles have been arrested in connection with the death of a 78-year-old Sheboygan Falls woman who was found dead inside her home Wednesday, according to the Sheboygan Falls Police Department.

Police Chief Steve Riffel said during a press conference this morning that the woman was found by a family member lying in a pool of blood inside her garage in the 200 block of West Ridge Drive at about 1:10 p.m.

Riffel said the woman had suffered blunt force trauma in what he described as a “violent incident.”

Riffel declined to comment on the timing of the incident but said it didn’t appear to have happened on Wednesday.

The two suspects were arrested early this morning in Sheboygan and will appear in Sheboygan County Circuit Court at 11 a.m. tomorrow, according to District Attorney Joe DeCecco. DeCecco said the two juveniles were “13 or 14 years of age.”

The two will be charged as adults, and police are recommending that both be charged with first-degree intentional homicide.

Police don’t believe there is a further threat to the community or neighborhood, and no other suspects are being sought.

Riffel said the woman was targeted by the two boys, and one was “familiar” with the victim — who lived alone — but he declined further comment on the nature of their relationship.

Investigators found several of the woman’s personal items missing from the residence, but police aren’t yet providing specific details on what led the boys to the woman’s home.

“We believe at this time that the individuals went to the residence with the intent to cause harm,” Riffel said.

The murder would be the city’s first since 1996, according to police.

As of mid-day Thursday, yellow tape surrounded the victim’s one-story ranch house located amid a collection, of newer, well-kept homes a few miles west of downtown Sheboygan Falls in the Westwynde Bluff subdivision.

Neighbors called it a quiet neighborhood, with lots of young families and children. One woman who’s lived there for the past decade said she regularly leaves her car doors unlocked and that safety has never been a concern.

Many of those same neighbors arrived home yesterday to find the road leading to their homes blocked off and police combing the area.

“It’s very concerning for a small town like this,” said Bobbie Norlander, who moved there from Sheboygan, partly to live in what she considers a safer community. “Last night I couldn’t sleep very well. It’s disheartening that this kind of thing would happen in our own neighborhood.”

Police are continuing to investigate and the two suspects remain in custody at the Sheboygan County Detention Center.